[Q] Help unbrick AMLogic aml8726-mx tablet

[Futaba0rus]

Hi, i want some help with unbricking an aml8726-mx tablet. It's Prestigio Multipad Prime Duo, 7" 1024x600 tablet with 16gb internal storage and micro-sd card slot. It has only Power and + - volume buttons.

I've bricked it by flashing official firmware with default recovery. Entered recovery, made wipe, than installed update.zip from sd card. Progress bar started to move, indicating what process is on the way. And than in about 20%(no real percentage was in that recovery) tablet first freezed and than turned off. From this point there was no reaction on buttons, no display(even no backlight) - nothing. Connecting it to PC made the power on light flashing every 1 second(i guess). No device found by PC. I've tried turning on with - and + pressed, with both, without pressing anything - no luck.

So it was deep brick. Later i have found some info about 5th and 6th pins on NAND chip inside tablet, if those pins are connected to each other, after turning on tablet will be discovered by PC as M6 device. That worked! After hours dancing around AML usb flashing tool i was able to boot some uboot on tablet, started some recovery(not on the screen, it's still black as night), connect to recovery with ADB and trying to flash BOOT, BOOTLOADER and RECOVERY.

What i've tried:
1)adb push boot.img, boot loader.img and recovery.img i get from official firmware for this tablet

2)to make sure what my files now exists on tablet. I've pushed them to /cache/ so

#cd /cache/
#ls

and ls told me what my .img files are there

3)tried to flash

#flash_image boot /cache/boot.img

#flash_image bootloader /cache/bootloader.img

#flash_image recovery /cache/recovery.img

And here is a problem - each of those command gave me that:
error scanning partitions exit with code -1

I can't flash bootloaders and recovery. I've googled for days and still dont get it - why that "partition scaning" errors and what should i try.

If anyone can help me with that, or is there some different method of flashing it - i will be highly appreciated. I've used this tablet for less than a week and now it's totally bricked what i can't bring it back to life.

 

[estebanjs]

How long does it take?

Hi, I just downloaded the image and the "HHD Raw Copy Tool" and copied the image with this tool into my SD Card, following the steps on this tutorial. I put the SD into my HD 18 v2.22, put an toothpick in the AV and plug the AC into the device, now the power led is Blue but i can't get video from the HDMI. It's been 10 minutes since y power it up. How do I know if it's installing the ROM? Thanks! :good:

 

[MuMikl]

E-M6 firmware

Can you help me? I try to install this official firmware: http//wwwenyboxcom/En/news/html/?428html... But installiation process was aborted...
Maybe you can create imgc file with this firmware?

Thanks!

 

[brocofelipe]

New Link

First off I want to thank you very much for posting such a detailed solution to this problem. I understand that you are busy, but I would really appreciate it if you can post a new link to the image you have created. I have tried to download from the provided link for a couple of days but I have had no luck. Thank you in advance for your assistance!

 

[sweeney-t-]

Mx Box Flash Loop?

Hi Benni,
I wonder if you can assist me please. I have a mx box (hd 18 v2.22) here that my dad managed to brick(no idea how). It sits with blue led on and no signal on screen(HDMI or AV). I followed your great guide(pretty sure to the letter) using 8Gb card. I get the recovery/loading screen. then at the end I get the 2 x fails, however on removing power lead and replacing it it just starts to do the same process over and over? I also notice it failed to wipe the data and cache, as well as the 2 fails :-

Program version......
Efuse_write offset=3 data_len=1 , error Efuse data version write size wrong. Failed to write version.

Program mac........
Finding Mac.... , Failed to write mac.

Is this what you would expect? Or has something else gone wrong? I have also noticed that to boot the card I don't need to hold the hidden av button I just need to put the power cable in with card in for it to start flash. I also tried removing the card when powered down to see if it would boot but just the same no signal without the card. The switch makes the clicking noise so sounds ok...should really have buzzed it to check it when I had the board open to check version in case its faulty. Will try this if you don't already have some ideas what the prob is.

Do you know or can you think of anything that will help/sort it?

 

[sweeney-t-]

update.....

Just a quick update incase it helps(prob get told off!!!)........ when in recovery window I tried manual install, of the 1.1.5 update in your image... aborts after verifying without installing. The same happens with the 1.1.5pre flash. I also tried the 1.1.5 RS and 1.1.6 RS from matricom.net, both of these install and say install complete. However rebooting same problem... No Signal.... Bah!.... HELP!!!!!

 

[i7demon]

Just to let you know the above link: Matricom Midnight G-BOX MX2 v1.1.5+ image (August 9th, 2013) isnt working! it DL's untill its about 85/95% then stops and ive tried to pause it and play and waiting 50 minutes and nothing happens? is it anywhere else to dl please? :laugh:

 

[BenniBenassi]

Hi Benni,
I wonder if you can assist me please. I have a mx box (hd 18 v2.22) here that my dad managed to brick(no idea how). It sits with blue led on and no signal on screen(HDMI or AV). I followed your great guide(pretty sure to the letter) using 8Gb card. I get the recovery/loading screen. then at the end I get the 2 x fails, however on removing power lead and replacing it it just starts to do the same process over and over? I also notice it failed to wipe the data and cache, as well as the 2 fails :-

Program version......
Efuse_write offset=3 data_len=1 , error Efuse data version write size wrong. Failed to write version.

Program mac........
Finding Mac.... , Failed to write mac.

Is this what you would expect? Or has something else gone wrong? I have also noticed that to boot the card I don't need to hold the hidden av button I just need to put the power cable in with card in for it to start flash. I also tried removing the card when powered down to see if it would boot but just the same no signal without the card. The switch makes the clicking noise so sounds ok...should really have buzzed it to check it when I had the board open to check version in case its faulty. Will try this if you don't already have some ideas what the prob is.

Do you know or can you think of anything that will help/sort it?

These are the 2 errors to be expected.

I suspect you might have a different version of the board, these versions I made and tested them with are only booting when button is pressed.

Also, after removing the power cord, did you also remove the sd card? If you didn't then no wonder it does the automated script again.

---------- Post added at 01:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 AM ----------

Can you help me? I try to install this official firmware: http//wwwenyboxcom/En/news/html/?428html... But installiation process was aborted...
Maybe you can create imgc file with this firmware?

Thanks!

I tried to download this file to check it but I do not understand Chinese and I could not download it...

---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:07 AM ----------

Hi, I just downloaded the image and the "HHD Raw Copy Tool" and copied the image with this tool into my SD Card, following the steps on this tutorial. I put the SD into my HD 18 v2.22, put an toothpick in the AV and plug the AC into the device, now the power led is Blue but i can't get video from the HDMI. It's been 10 minutes since y power it up. How do I know if it's installing the ROM? Thanks! :good:

There should be a progress indicator !!! It gives screen info via HDMI during installation.

---------- Post added at 01:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 AM ----------

Just to let you know the above link: Matricom Midnight G-BOX MX2 v1.1.5+ image (August 9th, 2013) isnt working! it DL's untill its about 85/95% then stops and ive tried to pause it and play and waiting 50 minutes and nothing happens? is it anywhere else to dl please? :laugh:

Try jdownloader.org to download it ........
I think it will help!

---------- Post added at 01:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 AM ----------

Just a quick update incase it helps(prob get told off!!!)........ when in recovery window I tried manual install, of the 1.1.5 update in your image... aborts after verifying without installing. The same happens with the 1.1.5pre flash. I also tried the 1.1.5 RS and 1.1.6 RS from matricom.net, both of these install and say install complete. However rebooting same problem... No Signal.... Bah!.... HELP!!!!!

As I specifically warned, do not install anything manually. Follow my instructions or prepare to follow the consecuences. The manual installation does not work and may cause permanent damage to your box.

Try the way I described - it is by far the only easy way to recover a dead box (there are similar methods, but they follow the same prcedure, but in a more complicated way.

If it does not work, out of luck .......

---------- Post added at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 AM ----------

I tried to reset my box. Using Native linux by croniccorey. It was working fine then stated playing up freezing etc. So I decided to re flash. It kept my userdata. I tried to reset my user data and cache but it kept freezing during the process. I created a sdcard image to unbrick. It starts then stops a 1/4 way through. I just want to do a fresh install. Any help will be appreciated.

Linux uses different partitions, it may have altered the partiton table.

You will need to hack your box by UART method ..... if you know how ...
Sometimes even UART does not help.

The process takes about 15-20 minutes. BE PATIENT. If you pull the plug too many times during the install, you may end up with an expensive paperweight.



---------- Post added at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 AM ----------

Hi,

I've tried the install method but I'm stuck. I've created the sd card as per the instructions and can see the contents on the card however when I boot with the reset pin I get to the android recovery page with a number of manual options such as reflash from ext etc. the automatic flash does not start.

What have I done wrong?

You may have the wrong board version ?

---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 AM ----------

Just to let you know the above link: Matricom Midnight G-BOX MX2 v1.1.5+ image (August 9th, 2013) isnt working! it DL's untill its about 85/95% then stops and ive tried to pause it and play and waiting 50 minutes and nothing happens? is it anywhere else to dl please? :laugh:

Try jdownloader.org to download ....

 

[Diaggello]

Cannot Write to Target...

I ran into a problem with HDD Raw Copy Tool, v1.02. I tried creating the SD using both 4GB and 8GB cards. Both returned the following errors:

7/2/2014 12:18:03 PM Write Error occurred at offset 595,394,560 (87)
7/2/2014 12:18:03 PM Cannot write to target, aborting...
7/2/2014 12:18:03 PM Average speed: 0.8 MB/s
7/2/2014 12:18:04 PM Operation terminated at offset 595,394,560 LBA 1,162,880

 

[Pescadore]

HDDRawCopy1.02Portable Aborts

I've tried on 2 different computers, but I could not get HDDRawCopy1.02Portable to work. It says the task progress completes at 100%, 10.3 MB/s and Current sector: 1,163,064, but the message window says that it aborts, citing:

Write Error occurred at offset 594,477,056 (87)
Cannot write to target, aborting...
Average speed 10.3 MB/s
Operation terminated at offset 594,477,056 LBA 1,161,088

Hence, the rest of the process does not work, and my SD card is left unformatted, or at least not formatted in that is readable in Windows 7.

What exactly does HDDRawCopy1.02Portable do?

 

[r0undym0oney]

it works

To BenniBenassi

I have an android imx6 droidbox that I tried to update to gotham 13.1 and had troubles with no pictures in videos so

I decided to do a full wipe and fresh reinstall

So i followed your instructions and worked perfectly love the boot logo on the new rom

Thanks a lot

 

[james1089]

WARNING, IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, THEN DO NOT DO IT.

1) THE PROCESS IS ENTIRELY AUTOMATED.
2) NO NEED TO MANUALLY INSTALL ANYTHING ONCE THE PROCESS IS STARTED.
3) THE 2 ERRORS COMING AT THE END OF THE RECOVERY PROCESS ARE PART OF THE PROCESS.

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER:

If you can not follow the instructions correctly or you do not understand them, ASK BEFOREHAND on the FORUM and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES PERFORM THE RECOVERY.

Under no circumstances should you do any manual installation of any of the files located on the recovery sd card.

The result may be a permanently bricked box with no way to recover.

Here is an almost-idiot proof ROM install and UNBRICK method instruction for AML8726-MX (M6) Android TV Box (1gb / 8gb dual core):
If you manage to brick your box, it is your fault entirely. I did the recovery image for myself and decided to share it with community. Use at your own reponsibility.

Also known as:
G18REF
DROIDBOX iMX6
DROIDTV MX
MX2REF
MATRICOM G-BOX MX2
or any generic Android MX Media Box with same hardware, AML8726MX 1G/8G set top box
HD18 V2.2
HD18 V2.21
HD18 V2.22


I created an easy-install SD Card image from this ROM: Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 v1.1.5+ (ROM DATE = 9th of August 2013)

The ROM was used for creating the special install SD card.

It is very simple to install, just insert a 4gb or larger SD CARD into Windows PC and use this program to set up the card:

DOWNLOAD THIS:
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/HDDRawCopy1.02Portable.exe

Then use the extracted sd card image file as a source and set a target to your sd card (4 gb), it writes the image, close the HDD RAW COPY program and eject the card (SAFELY - choose eject from PC, right click menu + eject).

DOWNLOAD THIS:
FILE: Matricom Midnight G-BOX MX2 v1.1.5+ image (August 9th, 2013)


WARNING: THIS METHOD WILL ERASE EVERYTHING FROM YOUR MX BOX AND INSTALL A NEW ROM. USE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

As an added BONUS this will UNBRICK your device in case it is bricked.


Matricom image (Android 4.2.2): OTA works for XBMC etc
- Make sure MX device is powered off and power cable removed.
- Insert SD card you just created.
- Insert a match or a toothpick to reset hole - you will feel a click. (it is the AV hole in the back)
- Power on the MX box by inserting power cable, while holding the match in the reset hole.
- It will boot to recovery and start installing ROM.
- After finishing it will give 2 errors - these do not matter.
- Remove power cable and insert it again, the device will boot as MATRICOM MIDNIGHT G-BOX MX2

This is how the board looks from inside: (NO NEED TO OPEN FOR INSTALLING)

This is old I know but is it possible I wiped my recovery last time I installed a new rom?
I have noway to get into recovery,it use to work fine with tooth pick.

 

[napster100]

Not working

WARNING, IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, THEN DO NOT DO IT.

1) THE PROCESS IS ENTIRELY AUTOMATED.
2) NO NEED TO MANUALLY INSTALL ANYTHING ONCE THE PROCESS IS STARTED.
3) THE 2 ERRORS COMING AT THE END OF THE RECOVERY PROCESS ARE PART OF THE PROCESS.

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER:

If you can not follow the instructions correctly or you do not understand them, ASK BEFOREHAND on the FORUM and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES PERFORM THE RECOVERY.

Under no circumstances should you do any manual installation of any of the files located on the recovery sd card.

The result may be a permanently bricked box with no way to recover.

Here is an almost-idiot proof ROM install and UNBRICK method instruction for AML8726-MX (M6) Android TV Box (1gb / 8gb dual core):
If you manage to brick your box, it is your fault entirely. I did the recovery image for myself and decided to share it with community. Use at your own reponsibility.

Also known as:
G18REF
DROIDBOX iMX6
DROIDTV MX
MX2REF
MATRICOM G-BOX MX2
or any generic Android MX Media Box with same hardware, AML8726MX 1G/8G set top box
HD18 V2.2
HD18 V2.21
HD18 V2.22


I created an easy-install SD Card image from this ROM: Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 v1.1.5+ (ROM DATE = 9th of August 2013)

The ROM was used for creating the special install SD card.

It is very simple to install, just insert a 4gb or larger SD CARD into Windows PC and use this program to set up the card:

DOWNLOAD THIS:
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/HDDRawCopy1.02Portable.exe

Then use the extracted sd card image file as a source and set a target to your sd card (4 gb), it writes the image, close the HDD RAW COPY program and eject the card (SAFELY - choose eject from PC, right click menu + eject).

DOWNLOAD THIS:
FILE: Matricom Midnight G-BOX MX2 v1.1.5+ image (August 9th, 2013)


WARNING: THIS METHOD WILL ERASE EVERYTHING FROM YOUR MX BOX AND INSTALL A NEW ROM. USE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

As an added BONUS this will UNBRICK your device in case it is bricked.


Matricom image (Android 4.2.2): OTA works for XBMC etc
- Make sure MX device is powered off and power cable removed.
- Insert SD card you just created.
- Insert a match or a toothpick to reset hole - you will feel a click. (it is the AV hole in the back)
- Power on the MX box by inserting power cable, while holding the match in the reset hole.
- It will boot to recovery and start installing ROM.
- After finishing it will give 2 errors - these do not matter.
- Remove power cable and insert it again, the device will boot as MATRICOM MIDNIGHT G-BOX MX2

This is how the board looks from inside: (NO NEED TO OPEN FOR INSTALLING)

No joy for me, the process took so little time it's like it didnt even try, it finished in less than 2 minutes and I pulled the power cord and USB then reconnected the power and I just get booted into recovery now...

 

[jizar]

Got it

I had a problem. I followed the instructions to the nail. and when I booted my box all i got was the Green Dude resetting every 5secs.

But I found the problem, It seems that if you use a 8Gb or higher SD card (or MiniSD with adapter in my case) the system format it as a ExFat.
I tried with a 16Gb SD first and got Android Green guy loop. then i Tried a 8Gb SD. and same thing happened.
Finally I Stole a 4Gb SD from my son's Wii and it worked Flawless.

If anyone had the same problem as I. Try this, it may solve your problem.

 

[BenniBenassi]

No joy for me, the process took so little time it's like it didnt even try, it finished in less than 2 minutes and I pulled the power cord and USB then reconnected the power and I just get booted into recovery now...

It's always in one of the following:

WHAT sd card did you use (USE only 4gb sd card)?
WHICH board does your MX box have?
DOES your MX box have some other serious issues?

All of the 4 boxes I have, work flawlessly with this rom.

---------- Post added at 08:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 AM ----------

This is old I know but is it possible I wiped my recovery last time I installed a new rom?
I have noway to get into recovery,it use to work fine with tooth pick.

This sd card image is supposed to work without any recovery on your board. There might be some other issues.

Try to reapply the image by my method.

 

[napster100]

It's always in one of the following:

WHAT sd card did you use (USE only 4gb sd card)?
WHICH board does your MX box have?
DOES your MX box have some other serious issues?

All of the 4 boxes I have, work flawlessly with this rom.

---------- Post added at 08:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 AM ----------



This sd card image is supposed to work without any recovery on your board. There might be some other issues.

Try to reapply the image by my method.

I used a 4GB USB stick
The board has HD18 V2.22 printed on it
And I don't believe there are any other issues, when I turn it on I get the splash screen then it restarts and I get the splash screen again but then loads into recovery.

---------- Post added at 07:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 AM ----------

It's always in one of the following:

WHAT sd card did you use (USE only 4gb sd card)?
WHICH board does your MX box have?
DOES your MX box have some other serious issues?

All of the 4 boxes I have, work flawlessly with this rom.

I love you!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! I rewrote the file you gave us to a 16GB Kingston Class 4 HC Micro SD and put that in an SD adapter it worked flawlessly like you said!

I do have a question though, why dose it only seem to work on SD cards? It seems bazar to me, they all do the same thing, I mean sure they have different I/O speeds but why would that affect it?

 

[james1089]

It's always in one of the following:

WHAT sd card did you use (USE only 4gb sd card)?
WHICH board does your MX box have?
DOES your MX box have some other serious issues?

All of the 4 boxes I have, work flawlessly with this rom.

---------- Post added at 08:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 AM ----------



This sd card image is supposed to work without any recovery on your board. There might be some other issues.

Try to reapply the image by my method.

The rom at present is working fine, when I flashed last time I used usb stick from recovery. As I said now recovery has done 1, tried to install CWM seemed to go well but reboot to recovey or bootloader just restarted android, after a long wait. I will have to find a 4gb sd card and see if it helps thanks for the info. Is this method possible under Linux.

 

[Tonytthor]

help

hi thanks for the advice but after install and reboot nothing but the android logo on screen any suggestion would be gratefull thanks for your rom anyway
regards
dave

Hel lo, just found your fix and am a newbie so I am not sure how this is done. I downloaded the Hdd tool, I openned it and it shows me my sd card, I double click where it says too and it tells me van not read file is not accessible or file is damaged. This is a brand new sd 4gb I bought today just to try this fix...
My GBOX Midnight mx2 IS STUCK ON MATRICOM LOGO..

Any help would be much appreciated as I am vacationing in Mexico for 6 months and really don"t want to ship it back to Matricom in Florida...

Thank you
Tony

 

[james1089]

Hel lo, just found your fix and am a newbie so I am not sure how this is done. I downloaded the Hdd tool, I openned it and it shows me my sd card, I double click where it says too and it tells me van not read file is not accessible or file is damaged. This is a brand new sd 4gb I bought today just to try this fix...
My GBOX Midnight mx2 IS STUCK ON MATRICOM LOGO..

Any help would be much appreciated as I am vacationing in Mexico for 6 months and really don"t want to ship it back to Matricom in Florida...

Thank you
Tony

Format the new card from my computer and try again. Maybe open the tool with administrator .

 

[Tonytthor]

Format the new card from my computer and try again. Maybe open the tool with administrator .

Thanks I will try that first....

 

[james1089]

Your recovery image can't be found is what i'm getting with flashify. Seems like I must of wiped it somehow is that even possible?